Luke Combs Couldn’t Have Imagined the Success He’s Having Now

Luke Combs has had a whirlwind year of success, and the rising country star admits that nobody is more surprised than he is.

"I would have thought we'd have a little bit of success," Combs tells Taste of Country's Ania Hammar in the latest installment of her weekly series, That's What She Said. "But not the year that we've had."

That year includes two No. 1 hits with "Hurricane" and "When It Rains It Pours," and a third single, "One Number Away," poised to follow those songs to the top of Billboard's Country Airplay chart. Combs also released his debut album, This One's for You, to great success, and he's even climbed into headlining his own shows. The schedule, he admits, has been "exhausting, but worth it."

Combs' initial goal was to score one No. 1 hit. Now that he's working on his third, "I think it would be crazy to set the bar that high," he says, adding, "I think we've exceeded expectations for sure."

The singer says the hardest part of his accelerated travel schedule has been trying to get enough rest, especially for his voice.

"I usually just kinda go to the bus," he says of his after-show ritual. "And sometimes people are like, 'Why don't you ever hang out?' I've got 20 people that count on me every day to be out playing shows, so I kinda don't have that luxury of hanging out as much as I'd like to."

The payoff is that he's building a loyal fan base, one show at a time.

"Right now we've got fans who've been to 30, 40 shows," Combs states. "Which is crazy ... it's hard to imagine the support that we have, kind of everywhere. We sold out in Hawaii, went to Europe, we went to Australia. It's just hard to imagine that five years ago, I couldn't get a guy to stop eating a chicken wing and listen to me play."

Hammar also runs down a list of county songs that were ahead of their time and should have been hits in this week's episode, including an early offering from future superstar Chris Stapleton. Look for That's What She Said online every Friday, and make sure you subscribe to Taste of Country's YouTube channel so you never miss an episode!